State Senate, Dist. 3: Argenziano nabs seat from incumbent Mitchell

INVERNESS -- Nancy Argenziano defeated incumbent Richard Mitchell for the state Senate seat in District 3, which includes most of Citrus County and a dozen counties to the north.

Argenziano, 47, a Dunnellon Republican finishing her sixth year in the state House of Representatives, unseated the Democratic senator with 54.5 percent of the vote.

Argenziano's win makes her Citrus County's first hometown senator in six years. She replaces Mitchell, 46, a one-term senator from the north Florida town of Jasper.

Geography and personality played as much a role in the race as the issues, with Argenziano painting Mitchell as an absentee legislator who visited Citrus County only a handful of times (Mitchell said his visits actually numbered near 50).

The new district favored Argenziano, with 56 percent of the voters in her stronghold area of Citrus and Marion counties, which backed Argenziano nearly 2-1.

"His biggest downfall was he was never out in his district," Argenziano said Tuesday evening from Coach's Pub & Eatery in Inverness, where a celebration party was under way as results trickled in. "I heard that everywhere I went."

Her victory came in spite of a flurry of negative ads from Mitchell's campaign in the past two weeks, which criticized Argenziano on everything from the state's budget cuts to a controversial letter her former aide Frank Peterson wrote in 1999 to the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

When Mitchell sent a mailer saying Argenziano had voted against prescription drug programs for seniors, an irate Argenziano said Mitchell "needs a bar of soap to wash out his mouth, because those are darn lies."

Argenziano touts her prescription drug measures as one of her top accomplishments. A bill she sponsored in 2000 reduced prescription drug prices for low-income seniors, and a 2001 measure allowed pharmacists to dole out generics for some drugs.

"I'm glad the negative stuff did not work, because I was really afraid it would work," Argenziano said Tuesday evening.

Mitchell stood behind the ads, which he said contrasted his record with hers. He did not return calls for comment Tuesday night.

Argenziano spent election day hobbling around on crutches: She broke her right foot Saturday evening while placing campaign signs in Levy County.